Q: Gina, why is it that a high carb day spikes the metabolism? Does it work the same if it’s a cheat day and they aren’t clean carbs?
A: Spiking your metabolism is key to avoiding plateau’s and keeping your body responding! You can spike your metabolism with high carbs or some people do a high calorie day. The bottom line is to feed your body out of the ordinary nutrients to trick your body and cause it to speed up. Basically if you eat the same thing day in and day out, your metabolism may stay consistent. Our bodies are smarter than you could even imagine and by changing it up and spiking food/calories or carbs your body literally says, “what is this, what are you doing” and reacts by speeding up and processing the nutrients. This is similar to doing a carb rotation where you are constantly keeping the body guessing and the glycogen levels changing with high/low/medium days. You can find more info on the article I wrote on the carb rotation. Typically after a high carb day or “refuel meal” as I call it, instead of a “cheat meal”, you want to follow a low carb day, the following day, so you don’t have a glycogen overload and i.e. possibly causing fat storage. I call these meals “refuel meals” because you are refueling your mind, body, muscles, glycogen stores and metabolism. I refer to them as refuel because when you say “cheat” people thing of this as a binge and that is not what it is. A refuel meal in my plan is something that may be out of the ordinary and not something you find on your daily diet but something fun, something you may have been craving yet still healthy. For example, if you have been dying for pasta or pizza, a great refuel would be whole wheat pizza dough or whole wheat pasta with a healthy tomato sauce and veggies. If you had carbs that were not the cleanest, it is a way to trick your body, yes of course because your body is not use to those types of foods but I treat my body like a temple and just don’t like to put those types of foods in my system that often. To me the healthy choices are just as good and will process much better!
Not only are refuel meals important for our metabolism and success but they allow us to stay mentally healthy and give us the flexibility to live a little and enjoy life without always having Tupperware handy….
Again, a reminder, a refuel meal is not a binge meal but a meal to still be aware of your portions but maybe enjoy a little something you haven’t had in a while and that you don’t have too often! 😉
